Honkai: Oh No, I’ve Become the Herrscher of Corruption?! - Chapter 145

No matter how inexperienced Pardofelis might be, you have to admit that Sirin did manage to defeat a MANTIS in a one-on-one fight.

But just as Sirin was feeling rather pleased and excited, Enoxia’s words poured cold water all over her enthusiasm.

“What? Is it the Herrscher of Sentience, the Herrscher of Dominance, or the Herrscher of Binding?”

Enoxia shook her head:

“I don’t know. Jackal said further confirmation is needed. The one silver lining right now is that the Herrscher emerged in the sparsely populated Sahara Desert. If handled promptly, even a Herrscher’s threat to humanity can be negligible.”

After Enoxia and Sirin bid farewell to several of the Flame-Chasers, they returned to the World Serpent headquarters. There, Jackal wore an expression as if she’d seen a ghost—something Enoxia had never seen on her before.

“What’s wrong?”

Jackal swallowed hard:

“One minute ago, the Imaginary Singularity… vanished.”

Sirin: ???
Enoxia: ???

“Don’t look at me like that. This is the first time I’ve ever seen something like this.”

She turned to a console and quickly typed a few keys.

“Here, this is the last known location of the Imaginary Singularity. Go see for yourselves—your abilities make it easy enough. Also, I’m certain both Schicksal and Anti-Entropy detected the signal earlier, but by the time they get there, the scene will have long since changed.”

Deep in the Sahara Desert.

This was an isolated, barren wasteland. All around were rolling sand dunes, with fierce winds howling intermittently, whipping up clouds of dust that made it hard to keep one’s eyes open. In this desolate landscape, there was almost no sign of life—only the occasional towering cactus, standing taller than buildings, stubbornly surviving here.

“Are you sure Jackal didn’t give us the wrong coordinates?”

Although the desert wasn’t suitable for human habitation, Honkai beasts and zombies—which didn’t need to eat or drink—were clearly unaffected. But the scene before them was a bit too barren. Forget people—there wasn’t even any Honkai activity.

Enoxia also found it strange. Through satellite data and information from surrounding countries, she learned that within a hundred-mile radius of these coordinates, there were no towns—just endless desert. If any Honkai beasts had appeared, they should have been clearly visible from the air.

Sirin, unwilling to give up, investigated the area, but still found nothing. In the end, she and Enoxia returned to World Serpent headquarters just as confused as before. The matter was ultimately left unresolved.

——————————

July 12, 2012. B-Rank Valkyrie Lewis arrived in Cairo. Her destination was Schicksal’s African branch.

Soon, a figure appeared before her—someone with darker skin and a slightly smaller build.

“Senior Lewis, hello. I’m Sera Mabduli, head of Schicksal’s African branch. You must be tired from your long journey.”

Sera politely and respectfully extended her right hand.

Although Lewis was only a B-Rank Valkyrie, she was a veteran who had been with Schicksal for over a decade. She had participated on the front lines in both the Second and Third Honkai Eruptions. In terms of seniority, very few in Schicksal could match her—after all, whether A-Rank or B-Rank, few Valkyries lived to 30 and remained in peak condition. Injuries from fighting Honkai beasts, combined with the backlash from artificial Stigmata, meant that over 95% of Schicksal’s Valkyries died young.

“Madam Sera, you’re too kind.”

Lewis quickly shook her hand. Having worked at Schicksal for nearly 20 years, she was well aware of its hierarchy and the responsibilities of each rank. As the leader of the African branch, Sera was undoubtedly an A-Rank Valkyrie—in any case, her rank was higher than Lewis’s.

“Senior Lewis is a hero who fought bravely and made repeated achievements in two major Honkai Eruptions. This is only proper.”

Lewis felt a little embarrassed by the high praise:

“Madam Sera, you flatter me. During the Second Honkai Eruption, when we were fighting the Herrscher of Wind, I was only directing ground forces to assist Lady Cecilia with our duties. In the end, it was Lady Cecilia and the Herrscher of Corruption who played the key roles. As for the Third Honkai Eruption… I didn’t even catch a glimpse of the Herrscher of Flame from start to finish, so I certainly can’t take credit. The defeat of the Herrscher of Flame was entirely due to the bloody efforts of Lady Cheng Lixue and the other warriors.”

The smile on Sera’s face didn’t fade:

“Senior Lewis is still so modest…”

Sera led Lewis to a reception room. After they sat down and exchanged more pleasantries, she finally got to the main point.

“By the way, I heard that Senior Lewis once worked with Lady Theresa.”

“I wouldn’t say ‘worked together’—I just had the privilege of some contact with her at headquarters and in Siberia.”

“That’s great. Could you give us some insight into what kind of person Lady Theresa really is?”

On July 12, Schicksal had also detected the Herrscher reaction in the Sahara Desert. Faced with a Herrscher signal that lasted only a quarter of an hour before vanishing without a trace, Schicksal was just as baffled as Enoxia. Upon receiving the notification, Sera immediately went to investigate herself, arriving at the signal’s disappearance point just a few hours after Sirin and Enoxia had left—but with the same result: she found nothing.

This left Sera both relieved and afraid.

Though she had never experienced combat against a Herrscher, after the Second Honkai Eruption, Schicksal’s new generation of Valkyries were no longer completely in the dark about Herrschers.

Sera had good self-awareness. She knew clearly that with her abilities, she’d probably just be cannon fodder against a Herrscher. Especially when the casualty reports from the Third Honkai Eruption reached her—while mourning the losses, she felt relieved that the Herrscher hadn’t appeared in Africa.

During the Third Honkai Eruption, Northern Europe and India suffered severe damage.

In Northern Europe, the Herrscher of Flame directly and indirectly caused over 472,000 deaths, leaving nearly a million people homeless.

In India, the Herrscher of Death directly or indirectly caused over 4.764 million deaths, with more than 10 million people left homeless.

Schicksal lost 10 A-Rank Valkyries and 96 B-Rank Valkyries in Northern Europe and India combined, with another 40 Valkyries permanently disabled and forced to retire.

And this was still the result of interventions by Fu Hua and Enoxia. If Fu Hua had arrived in Oslo a few hours later, over 99% of Norway’s population and Valkyries would have been wiped out. If Enoxia had ignored the Herrscher of Death, to say nothing of the broader implications, given India’s sanitary conditions and infrastructure, the over 15 million people in Kolkata would likely have all perished. If the Herrscher of Death’s influence had spread throughout the entire Ganges Delta, the death toll could easily have exceeded 100 million.

Sera was well aware that the situation in the Nile Delta wasn’t much better than that of the Ganges Delta—similarly densely populated but with relatively underdeveloped infrastructure. The African branch likely wouldn’t have performed any better than the South Asia branch. If any Herrscher were to appear in Cairo, perhaps the entire Nile Delta’s nearly 40 million people would suffer.

This was what frightened Sera. She knew that Herrschers were messengers of the Honkai, born to destroy human civilization. Although the circumstances of the first three Herrschers were… a tiny bit unusual, she’d rather assume the worst than hope for the best.

If the Herrscher that emerged in Africa found that the damage it could cause to humanity from the Sahara Desert was limited and decided to lie low before moving to the Nile Delta, the situation would become dire.

So, on one hand, she had the African branch closely monitor individuals with high Honkai adaptability, especially new faces. On the other hand, she reported directly to headquarters, stating plainly that if there really was a Herrscher, the African branch likely couldn’t handle it.

As the matter concerned a Herrscher, Otto naturally took it very seriously. He sent Fu Hua to the Far East to keep a discreet eye on Kiana, while dispatching Theresa to Africa to assist the African branch in their investigation.

Theresa’s special flight would arrive tomorrow.